How to Choose the Right Kayak | Everything you need to know

I'm Ken Whiting and in this video we're going to talk about what is probably the biggest question to answer in the world of kaying which is how to choose the right kayak but fortunately it's pretty easy because you know there's not that many choices you only have sit on top coaks sit inside recreational touring sea white waterer portable coaks fishing folding coaks skin onf frame kayaks inflatable kayaks modular kayaks tandem kayaks petal kayaks composite kayaks and plastic kayaks okay so there are a few kayaks to choose from and it is a challenging question it can be an overwhelming question to answer and it's really important that you get it right because if you don't get it right well it can very easily lead to an unsafe experience an uncomfortable experience or even just an experience that's not much fun at all regardless there's a good chance that that's it you'll be done with kaying all because you chose the wrong kayak so it's important to get it right and so let's Dive Right into how to choose the right kayak now when choosing a kayak you have to ask yourself a number of questions and some of these answers are going to be preferences whereas others are going to be truly limiting factors and so let's start with the questions that are limiting factors and the first one relates to the type of paddling that you want to do and so let's take a good look at that if you're going to be paddling Flat Water Well it's really not a limiting factor any any kayak will do the trick on Flat Water but it's important to understand when I say Flat Water I'm not talking about water that's flat right now I'm talking about water that will always be flat even if a a wind storm a thunderstorm blows through that water is going to stay flat and that means you're paddling on small bodies of water ponds small lakes rivers with very mild current if any really Flat Water if you're not just dealing with flat water if you're going into or want to go into uh water that isn't protected from wind and waves so bigger Lakes if there's wind starts blowing you can get some decent little waves on it or rivers that have more than just slow moving current actually can have little waves that can Splash Water dump water into your kayak well that changes things uh if you're dealing with mild rough water first of all sit on top kayaks are great and the reason sit on top kayaks are great is because they can't swamp if water dumps onto your kayak say a wave breaks on you it's just going to drain out through the Scupper holes of the kayak secondly if you flip not a big deal you can roll the kayak back upright it's not swamped you can just climb right back on and keep going or drag the boat swim the boat to shore get back in there and keep going now sit inside kayaks are more complicated in order for a sit inside kayak to be able to handle even mild rough water it really needs two things it needs the ability to handle a skirt and that means a smaller cockpit doesn't need to be a tiny cockpit but a smaller cockpit that has a cockpit rim or combing on it so that you can use a skirt over the cockpit and that stops waves that are splashing on top of you from just all that water from dumping in your boat and swamping you the second thing your sit inside kayak needs is at least one bulkhead a bulkhead is a wall inside the kayak that divides the kayak into different sections now basic kayaks sit inside kayaks designed for mild rough water will have one bulk head right behind the seat in fact basic sit inside recreational kayaks even that aren't designed for rough water will have this because it's a great thing to have in a kayak and the reason for that is if the kayak swamps if you were a cap size if a wave broke over you whatever reason only the cockpit in the front of the kayak is going to fill with water the back part of the kayak which you access through a hatch on the deck of the kayak that's G to stay filled with air it's like having this big life jacket on your kayak it makes it so much easier to deal with instead of a fully swamped kayak and if you're offshore a good distance in rough water in wavy conditions if you have a fully swamped kayak it's a bit of it's a nightmare at least if you have half of the kayak still filled with air you can much more easily drag it to shore tow it to shore do what you need to do even do a re-entry on the water even better than that is having a kayak with multiple bulkheads having a bulkhead behind the seat separates the back of the kayak into one section and then another bulkhead in front of the your feet and that separate separates the whole front of the kayak into its own section so if you swamp or if you flip only the center of the kayak the cockpit area is going to fill with water makes it even easier to deal with on the water easier for on waterer rescues or re-entries much easier to tow the boat swim the boat do whatever you need to get it to shore there is an option if your kayak doesn't have bulkheads like many portable kayaks portable sea coocks in particular don't have bulkheads they simply can't have watertight bulkheads in them what you can use instead is float bags in the kayak as long as the float bags are securely uh held in place inside the kayak that will serve the same purpose it'll provide the flotation if for some reason the kayak gets swamped now the next big limiting factor when choosing a kayak is portability but first a quick thank you to this video's sponsor and it's paddle ways it's a new and free app designed by paddlers for paddlers and those are few and far between more specifically it's an app designed to be an all-in-one tool for knowing how where and when to go paddling it's like an interactive guide book where you can find all the information you need to plan your paddling trip you can measure distances view access points campsites check the weather and water levels you can even find shuttle services and see other paddlers notes and photos it's a collaboration between NRS on water and American Whitewater and it's a new app there lots of information up there right now but there's more and more going up every day and so head to the G uh the app store or Google play to download it it's a cool tool all right now when it comes to portability if you don't have the means of transporting a full-size kayak or you don't have the place to store a full-size kayak well you need a portable kayak portable kayaks aren't just reserved for people who can't transport and store some people just want a portable kayak and that's fine the great news is that there's lots of portable kayaks to choose from there's been an incredible development of portable kayaks over the past 10 years in fact I use portable kayaks quite a bit when I'm traveling like the Pacquiao blue fin 142 which is a 14t hard shell C kayak that's a modular kayak it has six different sections that snap together and it really does perform like a normal kayak I've also been using the track kayak for almost 20 years it's a skin on frame kayak where you build the bow and Stern frames slide them into the skin of the kayak and then they connect with hydraulic jacks that push the frames apart and put the whole kayak under tension inflatable kayaks have also come a long way they used to be pretty simple but now they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes like the SE Eagle 38x which is designed to be super stable and to be able to handle up to class for white water or the cathlon X500 which is an inflatable kayak that doesn't just have a flat bottom it has a vhole like a good hard shell kayak now the reason not to go for a portable kayak well there are a few of them first of all Financial you do sometimes pay a premium for the portable nature of the kayak but that's not always the case performance is one area where you do pay a price portable kayaks don't tend to perform as well as a similar hard shell kayak durability is another area where you pay a price even though they've come a long way quality portable kayaks are remarkably durable but they're not quite as durable as full hard shell kayaks Comfort is another area you sacrifice because of the minimalist nature of portable kayaks they have to be able to fit in a bag they can't have the same robust outfitting that a hard shell kayak has and so you do tend to pay a little bit of a price when it comes to your comfort in a kayak now portability goes beyond whether or not a kayak fits into a bag or into the trunk of your car or you can store in the closet in your apartment portability also comes down to the length and the weight of the kayak uh for example a 10 or 11t kayak is a whole lot easier to move around than a 17t long kayak but length isn't as much of a limiting factor as weight is I've tested kayaks between 20 lb and 160 lb for a similar length kayak that's a huge variance and that can be a limiting factor for some people 160 lb is simply not an option in fact 60 lb might not be an option weight can truly be a limiting factor the biggest factor that determines the weight of a kayak is the material it's made from now and kaks are made from a variety of materials the most common material material is plastic uh made by a process called ROM molding now ROM molded kayaks are incredibly durable you can bounce these things off rocks you can drag them on the ground this is why Whitewater kayaks are Rotom molded but the downside of ROM molded kayaks is that they're the heaviest kayaks thermal formed kayaks are also plastic kayaks but they're about 20% lighter than ROM molder kayaks they are made with a thinner but harder plastic that makes the kayak much more rigid it gives the kayak better performance but they definitely aren't as durable as ROM molded kayaks these are kayaks where you can use but you can't abuse them you have to take care of them if you were to hit a rock hard enough or tie it down too hard onto a roof rack system you can actually crack the plastic composite kayak are also lighter than Rotom molded kayaks and they're a good option for a lot of people composite kayaks are made from a combination of a fabric with epoxy fiberglass you've got carbon Kevlar and there's a new company melker who's actually creating Fabrics with locally sourced flax for environmental purposes as well as Cork and regardless the the result is a really hard stiff and smooth kayak that travels beautifully through the water water the downside is the price you have to expect to spend between 50% to% more than a comparable Rotom molded kayak durability is also an issue depending on the layup because you're using Fabric and epoxy you can have thicker layups which make the kayak more durable but they also make the kayak heavier the thinner layups make the kayak you can get some really light kayaks this way but they're also not nearly as durable and you have to be very careful with them now let's talk about preferences uh and we're going to start with stability or speed you have to make a choice what's more important to you stability or speed or maybe they're both equally important but there's four factors that impact a kayak's stability or speed and that's length width rocker and H design and I'm going to quickly get into each those starting with length simple rule there the longer a kayak is the faster it is the shorter it is the slower it's going to be length doesn't impact stability though width on the other hand impacts both speed and stability The Wider a kayak is the slower it's going to be but the more stable it will be the narrower a kayak is the faster it'll be but the less stable it will be now rocker is the curvature of a kayak from bow to stern when you look at it from the side and the banana shape of the kayak the more banana shape the more rocker a kayak has the slower it's going to be the flatter its profile is then the faster it will be now the tradeoff there isn't stability it doesn't impact stability whatsoever it impacts maneuverability the more curvature it has the more rock kayak has the more maneuverable the easier it is uh to turn that boat so the next preference is sit on top versus sit inside kayak and so let's just talk about the benefits of both starting with sit on top kayaks the benefit of sit on top kayaks is that they well first and foremost they prioritize stability over speed and the reason for that is pretty simple sit on top kayaks when you're sitting on top of them and so your center of gravity is higher and so in order for that kayak to be as stable as an equivalent sit inside it needs to be wider and that means the kayak's going to be by Nature slower rather than fighting that manufacturers have said you know what let's not fight it let's just double down on stability of sit on top and so as a general rule sit on top are designed to be stable stable stable and they give up a fair amount of performance now there are exceptions to every Rule and for this rule you've got kayaks like the swell watercraft Scupper 14 a sit on top kayak that is actually designed to perform very much like a sit inside kayak and it does a great job but as a whole sit on top kayaks are designed for stability first sit on top kayaks are also very comfortable you're sitting in this big wide open platform you can go cross-legged you can hang your feet over the side they can be extremely comfortable boats a lot of of quality sit on top kayaks will even have luxurious framed seats and one of the benefits of framed seats is that it lifts your butt higher than your heels and when you're sitting when your butt's higher than your heels and you're sitting in a kayak the benefit of that is that the angle of your body is reduced it's no longer if your butt's low it's a 90° angle that you're bent at and for some people who aren't very flexible that can be harder uh especially not flexible in the hamstrings and legs that could be a harder position to hold whereas if you're sitting up it can be much easier on people that are low on flexibility or have bad lower backs another benefit of sit on top is they don't swamp which we've already talked about they are filled with air and they have scuppers so that if water comes onto the deck the water just drains right out of them and the last benefit of sit on top is accessibility they are a lot easier to to get onto and off from because you're not stepping down as far as you are with a sit inside kayak you know I kind of equate it to sit on top is like stepping into the shower whereas a sit inside is like stepping down into the tub and so accessibility is a real benefit with sit on top kayaks now sit inside kayaks the biggest benefit of a sit inside kayak is performance first you have speed and just like sit on top coaks have to be wider because the center of gravity is higher when you're sitting on them sit inside kayaks you're deeper in them your center of gravity is lower the kayak can be narrower and still have great stability and a narrower Kayak travels through the water more efficiently and so as a rule sit inside kayaks are faster than comparable sit on top kayaks the other benefit when it comes to Performance is control uh a sit inside kayak you have more touch points more control control over the kayak because you have more contact with the kayak I compare sit on tops and sit in sides to flipflops and trail shoes the sit on top is like a flip-flop you're just on top of that platform and you really don't have much control a sit inside is much more like a trail shoe where it wraps around you and some of the higher performance sit inside you have thigh hooks you have back bands you have a lot of control you can tackle much more aggressive water in a sit inside kayak than you can in a sit on toop kayak sit inside kayaks also have a comfort benefit you don't have the same freedom of movement that you do on sit on top kaks but they do offer protection from wind and water when you paddle to sit on top kayak you have to expect that you're going to get wet when you paddle to sit inside kayak you don't need to get wet seed inside KS also have an accessibility benefit well it's not that they're easier to get into than a sit on top kayak they're harder but sit inside kayaks are typically 20% lighter than sit on top kayaks because there's less materials in them and that can be a huge difference maker for a lot of people also there are more options in some of the lighter materials The thermoformed Kayaks the composite kayaks you typically have a lot more options for sit inside kayaks in those light materials than you do for sit on top kayaks now let's talk about tandem kayaking versus single kayaks do you want a tandem kayak or a single kayak well let's talk about the benefits of Tandem kayaks the benefits are well first of all tandem kayaks when you have two people paddling they're faster than single kayaks the other nice thing about tanm kayaks is that one person well only the person in the front can actually take a break from paddling and you can still travel the third benefit is that it balances the playing field and so if you have two paddlers with very different skills and experience in a tandem kayak you can now go experience the same thing now the downsides of Tandem kayaks well first and foremost you're stuck with that person for the duration of the trip you better like them the second one is uh you better be out there in the in the same kayak for the same reasons and a lot of people paddle for different reasons and so tandem kayaks there's a reason they're called divorce boats and the third downside to Tandem kayaks is that they're not as maneuverable as single kayaks now let's talk about pedal versus paddle kayaks now petal kayaks are something you see a lot more on the water these days especially for kayak fishing the real benefit of petal kaks well there's a couple for one you might be surprised to hear this but they're actually faster than paddle kayaks I was surprised to discover that when I started trying pedal kayaks the second benefit of a petal coock and probably the biggest benefit of The Petal coock is that your hands are virtually free to do other things although it should be noted you do steer with a little toggle on the side of the kayak and so you're not completely handsfree but much more free than when you are when you're paddling that's awesome for fishing that's why petal kayaks are so popular with kayak Anglers but it's also fantastic for photographers for uh and videographers for anybody who wants to be doing something at the same time the third big benefit of pedal CS not for everybody but for some people is Comfort some people they're just maybe it's bad shoulders and they they just can't comfortably paddle but some people with bad backs really like the sitting position which is more of a lounge lazy boy style sitting position in a pedal kayak with your feet out in front of you it really depends on your own individual needs now the downside of pedal Coxs well there's three key ones first and foremost price you pay a hefty premium for the pedal drive system uh you have to expect to pay at least $900 more for a pedal coock that's the same as a non pedal kayak one argument there is well you don't need a paddle you know you save on that well you don't because you still need a paddle as a backup when you have a pedal kak what happens if the pedal drive system fails what happens if the water is too shallow and you the pedal drive system won't work you need to get a paddle anyway that brings us to the second disadvantage of pedal is shallow water they aren't good in shallow water they're not good in water with heavy vegetation the pedal drive system can easily get bunged up and it needs more draft it needs more space to work effectively the third disadvantage of pedal is maneuverability in tight places and that's the other reason that you really need to bring a paddle with you if the pedal system won't let you turn around well you have to bust out the paddle well by answering the question of what makes sense for you uh in relation to the limiting factors and these preferences you've really narrowed down the type of kayak that makes sense for you but there are some other considerations I mean camping being one do you want to be able to go camping with your kayak and if you do you need enough space in the kayak or on the kayak to be able to store the gear and the capacity the it has to be able to hold that extra weight uh similarly do you like to bring your dog if you do want to bring your dog onto the kayak well depending on how big your dog is you're going to need a kayak that is extra stable and has that extra capacity this can easily lead you down the road of hybrid boats uh there's some wonderful hybrid boats that many people wouldn't call kayaks they're not kayaks they're hybrids like uh pack boats which are hybrids between canoes and kayaks they're canoes that you sit in like a kayak it has a seat the foot pegs in front of you you use a kayak paddle and so you get the control benefits of a kayak and the paddling benefits of a kayak but you get the tripping benefits of a canoe you've got tons of space where you can put a couple of big packs so when you get to a Portage you just throw the pack on your back throw the the pack boo on your head and off you go then you have pack rafts pack rafts are hybrids between rafts and kayaks and pack rafts amazingly can weigh as little as five pounds and they can open up bodies of water that otherwise were pretty much inaccessible to carry another boat up there would have been a lot of work while pack crafts change the game they let you access these bodies of water with a small portable uh boat that can also handle some serious white water well there's a fire hose of information for you I hope it does prove helpful because this really is such an important question to nail the answer on uh it will make the difference between having a safe and an unsafe a comfortable an uncomfortable or even a fun and an unfun paddling experience my last piece of advice is to visit a special paddle Sports retailer take this information these these answers you have visit a specially paddle Sports retailer ask them some more questions heck demo some kayaks and get a real feel for them firsthand on the water and that will be the last step in ensuring you have the ultimate kayak for your needs hope you guys enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it uh and have found it useful at all leave a comment down below if you have anything to add and stay tuned because I got lots more paddling tips paddling Gear reviews and paddling adventures coming your way oh and sub subscribe too and and hit the notification Bell I'm telling you to do a lot of things here but but yeah hit that notification Bell so that next video you get I put out you're going to be notified about unless you didn't like this but if you're watching this part 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Channel: PaddleTV

Views: 17,436

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Id: aVu03Xw2fak

Length: 26min 30sec (1590 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2024